“ In the southwest it communicates with the Japan Sea by La Perouse Strait between the islands of Yezo and Sakhalin, and by the long passage which separates Sakhalin from the mainland. It is nearly rectangular in shape, its northern shore lying nearly on the 60th parallel N., and it is about 1000 miles long and 600 miles wide. The coasts are steep and forbidding, very sparsely inhabited, and ice-bound from November to April and even to July. The open sea is ice-free, but subject to heavy fogs and storms. ”